Pepe Unchained (PEPU) Surges 113% to Become the No. 1 Trending Cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap

Layer-2 meme coin Pepe Unchained (PEPU) has surged 113% in the past 24 hours to become the No. 1 trending cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap

Layer-2 meme coin Pepe Unchained (PEPU) has surged 113% in the past 24 hours to become the No. 1 trending cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap, outshining Bitcoin even after it reclaimed the $100K mark.

PEPU is a sensational new Pepe coin derivative that exploded after its launch on Uniswap on Dec. 10, surging to a market cap of $377 million after hitting a new all-time high (ATH) of $0.05292 in the past day. It’s already skyrocketed more than 4x since launch.

But as Pepe Unchained goes parabolic, yet another frog-themed rival called Wall Street Pepe (WEPE) has burst onto the scene, further shaking up the frog-themed meme coin sector after raising $2.2 million in just one day.

That’s taken its presale raise to $6.45 million in slightly more than a week, fueling speculation that it could match or even surpass PEPU’s extraordinary $73 million presale fundraising.

It’s already pulling capital in at a much faster pace than PEPU did in the early stages of its ICO campaign. And if it sustains the run rate of the past 24 hours, WEPE is on track to surpass the $50 million milestone by the end of the month.

All the excitement in the frog-themed corner of the crypto world in the past 24 hours came as Bitcoin rose from a low during the period of $97.305.72 to a high of $101,913.36. It has since retraced to trade at $100,506.30 as of 2:55 a.m. EST.

WEPE Is Perfectly Positioned To Benefit From 2025 Meme Coin Mania, Anticipated By Bitwise In Its Latest Report

WEPE is also perfectly positioned to benefit from the 2025 meme coin mania that Bitwise has predicted in its latest report.

2024 was a landmark year for crypto, but we believe 2025 will mark the beginning of its golden era.

10 predictions for the year ahead (plus one big bonus prediction):

1. Bitcoin will trade above $200,000.

2. Bitcoin ETFs will attract more flows in 2025 than they did in 2024.

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— Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) December 10, 2024

Many experts, including YouTuber Austin Hilton with 295K subscribers, anticipate great things for Wall Street Pepe‘s future. In a recent video, Hilton predicted the new meme coin will “revolutionize the crypto space.”

Pepe Unchained Combines Meme Coin Appeal With Cutting-Edge Layer-2 Technology

Still, in Pepe Unchained, WEPE will face a tough competitor that has already become the sixth-biggest frog-themed meme coin by market cap behind PEPE, BRETT, TURBO, PEPECOIN and FWOG

In recent months, industry leaders have called for more utility in the overall crypto space. Pepe Unchained, with its lightning-quick layer-2 network, is a frontrunner in this regard within the booming meme coin space.

Not only does Pepe Unchained appeal to degen traders and investors, who often thrill-trade meme coins, it also addresses Ethereum’s scalability issues. In 2024, hype around meme coins has led to multiple outages for some of the leading layer-2 networks in the Web3 space.

Ethereum, with its first-mover advantage in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, has become the de facto network for many developers to deploy their projects. This increase in traffic has upped network fees and transaction finality times substantially.

PEPE UNCHAINED L2 IS LIVE!

Yesterday’s launch went off without a hitch.

Our L2 network handled the massive volume effortlessly and is now ready to welcome the masses!

Check out our official block explorer, Pepuscan, and witness this greatness firsthand.

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— Pepe Unchained (@pepe_unchained) December 11, 2024

By offering a fast and cheap chain, Pepe Unchained’s network could become a new haven for the next generation of meme coins.

The project has already launched a developer grant program and will soon unveil its own meme coin launchpad to compete directly with the Solana-based Pump.fun.